STANFORD -- If Catherine Milton has her way, by the year 2000 every
American school child will have spent time feeding the hungry, helping the
elderly or nurturing the environment.

As the founder and director of the Haas Center for Public Service at
Stanford, Milton already has shown what can be done with volunteerism at the
college level. Now, in a $73-million federal effort, she's trying to promote
public service on an even larger scale.

"What we are doing is trying to help support a national movement of
community service, particularly among young people," Milton said.

Since October 1991, Milton has been on leave from her job at Stanford to
serve as the first executive director of the new Commission on National and
Community Service in Washington, D.C.

The commission, a result of the National and Community Service Act of
1990, is charged with providing program funds, training and technical
assistance to states and communities to develop and expand public-service
opportunities.

Under Milton's direction, the commission will allocate funds in several
major categories: $16.9 million to programs involving school-age youth in
service to the community; $5.6 million to support college-student community
service projects or teacher training in "service-learning" methods; and $22.5
million for full- time, year-round or summer conservation and youth service
corps programs.

In addition, four to eight states and Indian tribes are expected to share
up to $22.5 million in 1992 to test national service programs that will
engage individuals ages 17 and older in full-time or part-time service.
Participants will receive education or housing benefits upon completion of
their term of service.

Milton is particularly excited about the funds to promote
"service-learning" among kindergarten through 12th graders. Already she has
had some experience in the area -together with Megan Swezey of the Haas
Center, she helped to found a youth community-service program in Palo Alto,
Calif.

Now in its second year, the program involves several hundred students in
the Palo Alto Unified School District, who learn about things like pollution
and poverty, then go on to clean up parks, run canned food drives and develop
schoolwide recycling programs.

"This has tremendous potential for the whole education reform movement,"
said Milton. "When children see that what they're working on is going to be
useful, they're motivated to learn more."

Milton also is eager to see the results of the adult service programs that
will be tested by states and Indian tribes. If successful, they could provide
a model for a major national public service program. (Democratic presidential
candidate Bill Clinton has proposed providing college loans in exchange for
service in teaching, policing or child care, among other things.)

"I personally tend to be conservative on these kinds of large-scale
programs," Milton said. "If we send students out into the community, we want
to make sure we're not sending them into a situation that they're not
prepared for, or to a community that isn't prepared to receive them.

"That's why I feel very strongly that the approach that the commission is
taking is the right one. Through this, we will learn what does work, what
does not work, and what the problems are."

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